Hyperlocal information and publishing platform zavvie announced Thursday the launch of Offer Optimizer, a tool that allows homeowners to compare instant offers from industry-leading iBuyers like Offerpad, Opendoor, Zillow Offers and Redfin Now.
“Instant offers are the biggest thing to happen to real estate since Zestimates,” zavvie CEO Lane Hornung said in a statement. “Zavvie puts instant offers on overdrive with Offer Optimizer, ensuring sellers squeeze every last dollar out of their home sale.”
Zavvie’s Offer Optimizer presents three options to consumers: what it looks like to sell to a national iBuyer, what it looks like to sell to a local buyer and what the home might get on the open market. IBuyers are home buying investors that offer a quick-close, all-cash transaction and in many cases perform light maintenance work on a property before re-selling it.
With the rise of the prominence of the national iBuyer, more local brokerages have begun to offer it as a service, using the backing of investors or partnerships with other national iBuyers.
Local partners for the launch include Robert Slack in Orlando and Tampa; BRIX Real Estate in Minneapolis-Saint Paul; Path and Post Real Estate in Atlanta; Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Winans in Dallas-Fort Worth; Summa Realty in Portland; and 8z Real Estate in the greater Denver area.
Zavvie was originally built and developed within 8z Real Estate before being spun off into its own company, owned by Hornung, who is also the CEO and founder of 8z Real Estate.
“iBuyers will have a growing place in the market, and clients are already asking our agents how they can participate,” Path and Post Real Estate Chief Operating Officer Brad Nix said in a statement. “Our agents can give Atlanta area home sellers the confidence to compare instant offers in a market that’s cluttered with confusion.”
The platform calculates offers based on transaction data specific to the local market where the company is operating. It provides homeowners with a breakdown of the costs and fees associated with each platform, as well as the expected time frame for the deal to be closed.
Offer Optimizer is available in 21 metro markets, including, Atlanta, Austin, Birmingham, Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Houston, Jacksonville, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Nashville, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, Raleigh-Durham, Riverside, Sacramento, San Antonio, Tampa and Tucson.
As iBuyers have become more prevalent in local marketplaces – zavvie’s data shows that approximately 5 percent of all home sales in Phoenix are going to iBuyers – so has the rise of solutions to give consumers and agents more power in the process.
Agent referral startup HomeLight last month launched a new tool for agents to present their clients with offers from iBuyers. One of the goals of HomeLight’s platform is to create competition among iBuyers to give consumers more competitive offers closer to market value.
